page_title: African-American names
section_title: Afrocentric and inventive names
hierarchical_section_title: African-American names / Influences and conventions / Afrocentric and inventive names
caption_attribution_description: English: Los Angeles Lakers Shaquille O'Neal 12/20/1999
context_page_description: African-American names are an integral part of the traditions of the African-American community. While many black Americans use names that are popular with wider American culture, a number of specific naming trends have emerged within African-American culture. Sources include French names, Arabic names and Muslim names, as well as other European and Biblical names.
context_section_description: The Afrocentrism movement that grew in popularity during the 1970s saw the advent of African names among African-Americans, as well as names imagined to be African sounding. Names such as Ashanti have African origins. The Black Power movement inspired many to show pride in their heritage. Harvard University sociologist Stanley Lieberson noted that in 1977, the name "Kizzy" rose dramatically in popularity following the use of the name in the book and television series Roots.
  By the 1970s and 1980s, it had become common within African-American culture to invent new names. Many of the invented names took elements from popular existing names. Prefixes such as La/Le, Da/De, Ra/Re, or Ja/Je and suffixes such as -ique/iqua, -isha, -ari, and -aun/-awn are common, as well as inventive spellings for common names. The book Baby Names Now: From Classic to Cool—The Very Last Word on First Names places the origins of "La" names in African-American culture in New Orleans.
  The name LaKeisha is typically considered American in origin but has elements drawn from both French and African roots. Other names—for example, LaTanisha, DeShawn, JaMarcus, DeAndre, and Shaniqua—were created in the same way. Punctuation marks are seen more often within African-American names than other American names, such as the names Mo'nique and D'Andre.
  In his dictionary of Black names, Cenoura asserts that in the early 21st century, Black names are "unique names that come from combinations of two or more names, names constructed with common prefixes and suffixes...'conjugated' with a formula..." "Da", "La", and related sounds may originate from the French spoken in Louisiana. Attached to a common name such as Sean and spelled phonetically, one obtains "DaShawn". Diminutive suffixes from French, Spanish and Scottish such as "ita" may be combined directly with prefixes or to a name, as is often found in white naming or nicknaming. Conventions followed usually make the person's gender easily identifiable. Following Spanish, masculine names often end in "o", e.g. "Carmello", while feminine names end with "a", e.g. "Jeretta". Following Irish, French and Italian, apostrophes may be used, e.g. "D'Andre" and "Rene'e". Parents' names may be blended, e.g. the son of "Raymond" and "Yvonne" might be named "Rayvon".
caption: Basketball player Shaquille O'Neal. Shaquille, shortened to "Shaq", is an example of an invented African-American spelling of the name Shakil.
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